You can barely leave RCUK HQ without having a flyer thrust into your hand… or a free newspaper for that matter. 

And it seems the Mayor of London’s office, Think! and Transport for London have taken those tactics on board with their new cycle safety campaign launched today. 

Spotted opposite Angel underground station, the lorry-shaped leaflets pictured have been affixed to locked bicycles. 

Since January 2009, 13 of the 23 cyclists who have lost their lives on London’s roads died as a result of collisions with lorries. 

And, with approximately half a million journey by bike in the capital per day, the danger of undertaking lorries is the focus of a campaign which will also:

• Introduce new ‘Safer London Driving’ cycle awareness training for lorry drivers, which is now part of HGV drivers’ Certificate of Professional Competence.
• Call for more freight operators to join the Freight Operator Recognition Scheme (FORS), while offering 540 free ‘Safer London Driving’ places to FORS members.
• Urge cyclists not to undertake lorries at junctions through a widespread cycle safety advertising campaign which will see hundreds of safety posters go up at key sites. 
• Call for more people to sign up for the additional TfL-funded adult commuter cycle training available from boroughs via www.tfl.gov.uk/cycling

The Mayor of London’s transport advisor Kulveer Ranger said: “As many thousands of cycle hire members have discovered over the past three months, cycling is one of the most enjoyable ways of getting around London.

“But as ever more people take to two wheels it is important we do everything we can to improve cycle safety in the Capital.

“We are working with freight operating companies to improve HGV safety and we are the first city in the UK to trial on-street cycle safety ‘Trixi’ mirrors.

“However perhaps most vital is getting safety advice to cyclists, whether new or experienced, particularly about road positioning and crucially that being in the blind spot of a large vehicle could potentially have fatal consequences.”

TfL launched a six-month trial of 39 Trixi mirrors, which reduce a HGVs blind spot at junctions, along the two Cycle Superhighway routes.

According to TfL, most lorry drivers, cyclists and car and van drivers surveyed agree the mirrors improve the safety of cyclists, while the majority of HGV driver admit they now negotiate junctions differently. 

Twenty thousand cycle safety lenses have been distributed to freight companies operating in London, while 300 construction companies have been urged to install additional safety devices on HGVs that are currently exempt.

That, of course, is not to say cyclists shouldn’t be doing their part – and, for once, this is one flyer worth reading and taking note of.